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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The naked truth

A guest post by Y. Bloch
I'll start by stating the obvious: I am a man. Thus, I claim
membership neither in Women of the Wall (WOW) nor in Women for the Wall
(W4W). However, as a human being and an Orthodox rabbi, I do have a dog
in this fight over women praying together at the Kotel, the Western
Wall. In particular, I'd like to take a moment to address the slipsters.

The
neologism "slipster" has many definitions on Urban Dictionary, but I
use it to refer specifically to those who utilize the slippery-slope
argument: in a debate over A, they will drag in the inevitable result of
B, which everyone presumably would reject.

Over the past 48 hours, since Women of the Wall held their Rosh Hodesh
services for the new moon of Av on Monday--not at the Kotel, but in the
Kotel plaza, as their way was obstructed by 7000 seminary girls--I have
heard many slippery-slope arguments via social and traditional media.
One young scholar offered this: "...if someone walked in holding a pig
which is the worst thing, the most traif thing, it is the exact same
thing of a lady walking in wearing tefillin." (You can read a dissection of his rant here.) Today, on Facebook, one commenter challenged Phyllis Chesler's excellent article with: "and when should the boundaries be set? When gays want to pray at the wall on the women's section?"

But
sometimes, you don't want idolatry or homophobia confusing your
palate--you want the heady taste of full-on misogyny. So let's turn to
the Big One among slipster arguments, the one most oft-heard, in Hebrew
and English. Even as I was composing this post, I learned of a new
entry, and the title says it all: "Soon they'll ask to pray naked," by Dov Halbertal, "a Jewish law lecturer and former head of the chief rabbi's bureau."

Well,
he may lecture on Halakha, but Rabbi Halbertal does not seem to be
overly familiar with many of the hottest topics in contemporary halakhic
analysis. Let's take the core of his argument.

I
don't see any possible justification for rejection the demand of the
women's organization to pray at the Western Wall uncovered. On the
contrary, self-expression in this case is even more impressive, as this
is the way the world was created. Don't see this as a parody or – God forbid – as malicious joy, but as a possible and actual forecast.

OK,
let's take this seriously, as R. Halbertal asks us to. He may not see
any possible justification, but I do: Halakha, that subject in which he
is an expert. Every one of the issues raised by WOW--women praying
together, women reading from a Torah scroll, women wearing the tallit or
putting on tefillin--is one of halakhic debate, among Orthodox Jews.

Take the tallit example for one. As well-documented by DB (see his analysis here), and as I have written before, Rav Moshe Feinstein (Iggerot Moshe, OH
4:49), a halakhic authority whom no one would accuse of being feminist
or liberal, ruled 40 years ago that a woman may wear a tallit and make
the blessing over it, just as she may do so for the blowing of the
shofar, as long as she has the intent to draw closer to God by this.

Or take tefillin. I'd recommend Dr. Aliza Berger's chapter in Jewish Legal Writings by Women (Jerusalem: Urim Publications, 1998),
"Wrapped Attention: May Women Wear Tefillin?" Dr. Berger is religious
and covers her hair, but she is on the board of directors of WOW, so I
guess R. Halbertal figures she'll be stripping down at the Kotel in the
near future. I know that my rebbe, Rabbi Dr. Aharon Lichtenstein, found the article very interesting (Jewish Action, Spring 2010). Or how about Or Sameach, Laws of Torah Study 1:2: "Women are permitted, and they have the right to put on tefillin, and it is an adornment for them."

Halakha is complex. It encompasses many views, some stringent, some lenient. I might mention the ruling of the Rema in Shulchan Arukh (OH
88:1) that menstruating women should not pray at all. Are we going to
set up detectors at the entrance to check--wait, pardon me, I was
talking like a slipster there. I apologize: actions should speak for
themselves.

Women of the Wall has a varied membership: Reform,
Conservative, Orthodox, etc. However, they have chosen to worship in a
way which conforms to Jewish law. They have never indicated a desire to
pray in a mixed setting, to violate halakhic standards or to desecrate
the holy. So why must others do so in the name of stopping their
prayers?

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

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If it relates to Jews, Judaism, holidays, Midrash,Torah, halacha or anything similar, I probably have a post on it. And if I have a post on it, I probably have a good comment thread with great reader-provided information, too.

Try a search and see for yourself. If you can't find what you're looking for ask me.

Quotes

רֹאשׁ דְּבָרְךָ אֱמֶת קוֹרֵא מֵרֹאשׁ דּוֹר וָדוֹר עַם דּוֹרֶשְׁךָ דְּרֹשׁ
Your chief word is "truth"; You've called it out since the beginning. In each generation people interpret You [for themselves] and find [their own] meaning.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd. -Flannery O'Connor

“When in the afterglow of religious insight I can see a way that is good for all humans as it is for me—I will know it is His way.” - R. Abraham Joshua Heschel

I don't accept at all the quite popular argument that the press is responsible for the monarchy's recent troubles. The monarchy's responsible for the monarchy's recent troubles. To blame the press is the old thing of blaming the messenger for the message. -Anthony Holden

Said behind my back

"...he's trying to show that there are other facets to Orthodox Judaism. That we don't all think one way and vote one way. And he's occasionally entertaining when he's not being mean-spirited" [PsychoToddler]"

"He's witty. He's funny. He appreciates the ridiculous in life, and has no qualms about telling you when he thinks that you're being a moron" [Cara]

" I'm pretty sure [DovBear] is a really great guy who just wants to be able to ask questions and talk about things without the fear of someone claiming he's off the derech or on his way there." [Chaviva]